US Became the First Nation to Withdraw From the Paris Agreement
US Is Responsible For 15% of the Global Greenhouse Emission
After a delay of around three years, the United States has finally become the first country to have formally withdrawn them from the Paris agreement regarding climate change. The move was previously announced by the President of United States Donald Trump in June 2017, but according to the regulations placed by the United Nations, the decision would be taken into effect a day after the presidential elections, which were held on November 3, 2020.
In the future, if the United States President decides to change their decision regarding the Paris agreement, they would be allowed to join back. The Paris agreement is a deal regarding the global response against the rapidly worsening change in the climatic conditions of the earth due to excessive global warming. The treaty was drafted in the year 2015 to limit and prevent damage to planet Earth.
The aim of the Paris agreement was to keep the rise of the global temperature in this century to be kept below 2C above the pre-industrial level, which are areas that have not been severely affected due to the extreme combustion of fossil fuel along with pursuing efforts which would help in limiting the escalating temperature to 1.5C.
Delay in withdrawal from Paris agreement
The delay time in the withdrawal from the Paris agreement was due to the complexity of rules and regulations that were implied by the Paris agreement to cope with a possibility that the president of the United States might change their decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement. Other previous multiple attempts to put together a climate change deal on a global level had been foundered due to the internal politics of the United States government.
In the year 1997, the Clinton administration was incapable of securing the backing of a US Senate for the Kyoto Protocol. Due to this, the negotiator in President Obama’s team ensured that if the time comes when the change in leadership of the United States, they would be able to withdraw from this climate-changing Paris agreement.
Even though the treaty was signed in December 2015, the deal came into effect on November 4, 2016, which was 30 days later than the other 55 nations, which represented 55% of the worldwide emission had confirmed it.
According to the Paris agreement, no nation would be able to leave or decline the deal until at least three years have passed since the date of sanction. Even then, the member nation would have to provide the United Nations with a notice 12 months prior to leaving. Due to this, despite the announcement made by President Trump on June 2017, the US was only able to provide notification to the UN last year in the month of November.
Meaning of withdrawal in practice
Now, the United States is representing 15% of the greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and is able to remain the country with the most powerful and biggest economy when compared with other developed nations across the world. Due to this, when Trump withdraws from the Paris agreement, which was to form a global solution regarding the rapidly escalating global issue, it raises multiple questions regarding trusting the US.
During the past three UN conferences regarding global climate change, the negotiators from the United States tried to use the talks for promoting the consumption of fossil fuel. The removal of the United States from the Paris agreement hurts the reputation of the country.
This is the second time when the US became the primary force information and negotiation of a new global climate change deal, as the Kyoto Protocol was never approved, and in the Paris agreement, the US willingly left.
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